The Supreme Court of Canada recently addressed the issue of the enforceability of restrictive covenants where the purchaser of a business offered employment to the business’s previous owners (Payette v Guay Inc. 2013 SCC 45)....more

I find the ethics and compliance industry full of paradoxes. First, it has a reputation for being dry, dull… full of ‘heretofores’ and ‘thou-shall-nots’. But I think it’s anything but dull. Whistleblowers, bribery,...more

When you learn a former employee has stolen your trade secrets to take them across the street to benefit a competitor, your quickest remedy is to sue him and try to shut him down through an injunction. Oftentimes, the new...more

Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced “a whistleblower award payout between $475,000 and $575,000 to a former company officer who reported original, high-quality information about a securities fraud that...more

In a case with potential significance for many Virginia employers, the Court of Appeals of Maryland recently decided in Cunningham v. Feinberg that the Maryland Wage Payment and Collection Law (“MWPCL”) may be applicable to...more

By statute, Delaware has affirmed the ability of parties to agree to have their rights, remedies, liabilities, powers and duties governed by the law of Delaware.
Originally published in the Delaware Business Court...more

International companies with operations in France, or those that conduct regular business with French commercial partners, should be aware that their longtime French commercial partners could be entitled to claim compensation...more

Adam Hartley, a Partner in our London office, comments: As we reported at the beginning of the month, on 20 November 2014 the ECJ heard legal arguments in the Woolworths’ case and two other cases, Lyttle & Others v Bluebird...more

The Fourth Circuit recently held that SOX whistleblower retaliation claims are subject to a four-year statute of limitations and that emotional distress damages are available in SOX actions. Jones v. SouthPeak Interactive...more

On January 20, 2015, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a decision plainly reminding employers of the importance of precisely drafting employment documents. In the case of In re...more

In 2014, Indiana courts considered a handful of cases that concerned non-compete and non-solicitation agreements between employees and employers. Indiana courts continued the trend and showed a reluctance to enforce...more

PCGH sued its former employee, Thomas Keck, to collect on an unpaid promissory note. Keck defended against the action by claiming that any money he owed PCGH was offset by monies PCGH owed him for unpaid bonus and severance...more

The decision unexpectedly expands potential liability.
On January 8, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a panel decision that established a new and potentially significant False Claims Act (FCA)...more

On January 7, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico issued an opinion overturning a jury’s $3.5 million punitive damages award for retaliation claims brought under Title VII and Puerto Rico law,...more

The submarine sandwich franchise Jimmy John’s has come under fire recently following the publication of a broad non-compete agreement that it has allegedly required rank-and-file employees to sign. The non-competition...more

The recent release of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) annual report to Congress on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program highlights the growing reliance of U.S. Government authorities on whistleblowers to...more

As federal agencies dole out record-breaking awards to tipsters (such as the SEC’s recent $30 million award), whistleblower programs remain a topic of public interest. Earlier this month, The New York Times published an...more

2014 was uncomfortably fast. When did you last write 2013 on a check or a letter by mistake? If you did, rest assured that you are not alone. So, while we still have a few weeks before we have to face the start of a new year...more

A district court in Pennsylvania has denied a motion to vacate a prior arbitration award based on the arbitrator’s alleged manifest disregard of the law, and instead granted a motion to confirm the award in a case arising out...more

According to the annual report issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), fiscal year 2014 was a "historic" one for the whistleblower program initiated pursuant to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. In...more

When you think of a monopoly you probably think of Rich Uncle Pennybags or oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, but maybe you should think of Princess Elsa from Frozen or the iPhone 6 instead. The largest Hollywood animation...more

The SEC’s whistleblower office has been in place since 2011, and in that time has handed out nine monetary awards to whistleblowers. It is about to hand out its largest award yet: a minimum $30 million reward to an...more

Employers drafting and seeking to enforce noncompete agreements struggle with structuring the temporal and geographic scope of the proposed noncompete covenant. The Texas Supreme Court has wrestled over the last few years to...more